Percy Jackson and the True Power of Chaos
by Blaze Stone
Summary: Inspired by PierceTheVeils' quote challenge. 'Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea. Until they have something to forgive.' -C. S. Lewis. I was trying to create a universe that was not the standard Chaos fic, and took the story of the universe's origins in a new direction. Please R&R, as your reviews inspire me to keep writing!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: this is completely inspired by PierceTheVeils FFN quote challenge, for their quote 'Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea. Until they have something to forgive.' -C. S. Lewis. As such I feel I should thank them and give them recognition for inspiring my very first fanfic. This is my fight back against how everyone overdoes how they do Chaos and make them a modern person instead of creating someone that could be original and amazing. Also, I forget things frequently so please review if you enjoy it or if you think I'm not doing the characters justice. Criticism welcome, flames expected but they will be taken with a nine course meal instead of a pinch of salt.

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Disclaimer: Unfortunately I'm just playing with Rick Riordan's characters as he's the one that owns them and the series. If I owned it, I probably wouldn't be posting on here and would be selling to a publisher instead... Probably.

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Before time and space existed, before the Olympians, the Titans, the Giants and the Primordials, there was Chaos. Let's just put this out there, there's no way anyone other than Chaos can completely understand how complex Chaos is, but let's try to paint a mental picture and see if you can keep up. The first thing you need to do to understand Chaos is that Chaos is a living being in its own sense, less of an organism and more of a consciousness from a higher plane of existence. Secondly, Chaos is the entire universe, including all of the timelines and alternate universes that have split off of the original due to the actions of individuals inside. Now when I say that Chaos is the universe, I do mean that literally, as in the universe that the Olympians exist in is living and its name is Chaos. Thirdly, you have to understand that Chaos is the only being that can permanently alter itself, from severing timelines that are cancerous, to creating fixed points, to influencing otherwise unalterable events to create new timelines. Lastly, you have to understand that you are potentially not living inside of the being called Chaos, but could be potentially living inside of another universe, which is also conscious. Complicated huh? Don't worry, just listen to this story and relax.

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Chapter One

My mind was blank as I rode the elevator for what I thought was my final climb to Mount Olympus, palace of the gods.

Annabeth was dead, our apartment in New York had been ransacked and despite Hades and the other Olympians owing me and six others massively for repeatedly pulling their asses from the fire, the Fates themselves had decreed that Annabeth would never be brought back to life as the woman I knew her as, or as a soul that swam through the Lethe as this was her third time achieving Elysium.

So here I was, going to take a final look at what I had risked my life for repeatedly over the years. Riding to what I'd decided was going to be my death as soon as I'd heard the fate of the most important person in my life, mortal or not, from the god of the Underworld.

As I stepped out, I couldn't help but look at the golden mansions and gardens with awe, before a wave of sadness swept over me at the thought that Annabeth would never see the finished product of her work on rebuilding it. Construction was still ongoing as whatever delays that affect construction in the mortal world apparently affected the immortal one as well.

Looking around for a nice secluded place to stop before taking the final plunge, I couldn't help but think back to the chain of events that had caused this. Flashes of our tiny but homely apartment flashed before my eyes, before seeing Annabeth's mutilated and ripped apart corpse scattered across the carpet, blood soaked into the couches, dust from many monsters killed created an inch thick cover for the living room, all the way to the bathroom where is lessened as you could see the window to the fire escape halfway open.

I shook my head. I wasn't going to think about that I told myself.

Finding a secluded place, I couldn't help but think about how much I had done for the gods, and how the one thing I asked for, actively sought them out to ask for myself, not for humanity or the sake of the future, was denied. I thought they were being asses. Selfish, stubborn asses, as if saving them was nothing but a token accomplishment, as if what I did could've been replicated by anyone else, as though they didn't care that they all owed me massively for my part in saving them not only once, but twice from utter destruction, not to mention all of the other ridiculous quests they had personally given me and the other seven and Nico, as though each one was so drastically important that they couldn't bear to give it to someone less than a savior of humankind.

That's why I was here. To shove it in their faces that they were ultimately the cause of all of my problems and the cause of my demise, not only for their lack of appreciation, but to really drive home that I used Olympus, their home, as the tool for my death.

I knew that I would most likely be met by either Nico or Hades themselves at the gates to the Underworld, but I had no intention of making it there. What I wanted was for my death to be complete and to jump into the Styx and let it dissolve my soul away as it had tried to before.

I, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, half-blood and savior of Olympus twice over, was going to end my life by jumping off of the six hundredth floor of the Empire State building, known as Mount Olympus to Greek and Roman immortals and half-bloods.

Finally, I looked around, almost looking for something worthwhile to stop for. Something to give my life meaning before it ended.

Seeing nothing, I walked to the edge, closed my eyes, spread my arms, and swan dived off of the palace of the gods.

You know, everybody know that air has friction, but most people don't quite realize how much. As I fell, I could feel the air around me heating up, almost burning me before something insane happened, even for me.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: If anyone here is good at writing lemons, please PM me because I'm going to be doing multiple pairings as the story goes on, for what will be obvious reasons by the end of the chapter. Again, I have a shit memory and if you don't review, there's a high probability that I'll forget. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

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Chapter Two

Time and space stopped in an instant, my body freezing in midair in the exact position that it was in as I was falling. You know that you live a messed up life when your first thought to this happening isn't, _how is this happening?_ Or h _ow is this possible?_ But is instead _who wants something from me now?_

That's when I heard it. Perhaps heard isn't the right word for this experience, because it wasn't some body-less voice talking to me, or some person talking inside my head, or even a vision that I was forced to witness or experience. It was an idea, a thought, pushed inside of my brain to not only explain what it was that stopped me, but to make me an offer. For the purposes of telling this story however, I'm going to attempt to explain the message that was sent to me, and put it into words.

What I "heard" was that a being called Chaos, otherwise known as the universe we live in, had stopped me; and this being was offering me an alternative to oblivion. The offer was as follows, either I continue my descent, smash into the ground below and die a somewhat painful death (at the painful bit I shuddered as others' experiences with suicide by this method flooded my mind), I allow myself to be saved by a god and owe them a debt, or I take the third option, which is to have this timeline severed, whatever that means, have my mind put into the body of myself in an alternate timeline, where I can save Annabeth in time. Of course, as the ancient Greeks said all too well and coincidentally the phrase translates almost perfectly, "there's no such thing as a free lunch". The cost for the third option was that my mind would forever be transplanted into alternate timelines, some of my choice, others of Chaos', never truly dying as whenever I died, my mind would live on in some other Percy's body, splintering off from that timeline to create a new one, benefitting Chaos by encouraging it's (to this day I don't know if Chaos is a him or a her) growth exponentially from the surge of new timelines.

All of this was compacted into my head in less than a second, with sudden understanding of the situation and the offer being the only change in the universe. In the next second I had made my decision and to this day, I wonder if I made the right one; or if I should have taken death as I had originally planned but I guess I'll never know because the next moment, I was suddenly waking up inside my younger self, more knowledgeable, wiser and with a massive thirst for revenge against the ones who had ruined my life, with the realization that I could exact it on the creatures that wronged me.

Most beings in the universe would be terrified at the smile that graced my face after that realization. In fact, many of them have seen it in one timeline or another. All of them have suffered, and all of them have had their last moments play out as I smiled at them, their final thought being the knowledge that this was all caused by me, that they suffered and died because they had wronged me, that no matter if they were godly or not, they would never come back because of me, and their one true regret being that they had done me wrong and never being able to undo it. Most beings in the universe that I've met have seen me smile that way in one timeline or another, but they've all come to regret it, yet even the immortals have never seen me in any timeline as angry as I was in that first mind-jump.

It was the start of a beautiful day for me. The bastards never knew what hit them.

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A/N: As you all can see, Percy is going to be a bit dark and more of a moral grey for this story, so I'm warning you now that those of delicate sensibilities to violence should leave now. While I don't need any lemons for the next few chapters, I'd like to add some in here and there, just to spice it up and be true to the idea that I have in my head for this story, so definitely PM me if you're interested. Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think so far!

P.S. Don't expect updates this fast in the future as I'm going to be exponentially busier for the next little while.


	3. Chapter 3

Yet again I woke up in that bloody motel room in Canada, with the sickly green wallpaper peeling off the walls and the faint smell of bleach and piss assaulting my nostrils. Getting up and again bursting out of the door, trying to make my way back to New York before the monsters could arrive. Once more, I called in a favour from Hermes to get me from west to east before the horde could get there and one more time, I arrived with just enough time to have a bittersweet reunion with Annabeth before the swarm of monsters arrived, headed by my old friend The Minotaur.

 _How many more times am I going to fight this battle_ , I wondered. _How many more times am I going to watch either Annabeth or myself be killed, suffer the pain of dying and wake up in that shitty motel room?_

I'm not sure how many times it ended up being before I decided to give up, and just said goodbye. The straw that finally broke the camel's back however was watching Annabeth get raped after we were beaten, chained and strapped to the walls. After I saw-… No, I'm not ready to talk about that yet. Not yet.

The point is, I can still remember the very first time I said goodbye to her. I'd arrived with five minutes to spare; just enough time to say goodbye but not quite enough to escape with her before they arrived. She was looking as radiant as always when she opened the door, with her hair in a messy bun, eyes squinting with tiredness but desperately trying to blink the sleep out of them, and a worn and faded blue robe with the patch of a pink owl on it half falling off.

"Percy! What on earth are y-" she started to say before I scooped her into a tight hug that squeezed her arms by her sides. I can still remember the smell of her hair to this day, after how many centuries that I've lived through.

"Annabeth." I said, my voice muffled by her hair "I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry for what's to come. No matter what I've tried I can't seem to save us, but I want you to know that this time, we'll take them down together, and we'll take them down as permanently as is universally possible, I swear on the river Styx."

Thunder boomed as I made that promise for the last time. When the Minotaur broke down the door, I cut his head off his shoulders as he walked in for the last time. As the end crept nearer, and monsters kept coming through, as we were pushed back into the bedroom with dust from the bodies of the monsters we slayed rising up to our knees from their sheer numbers, I looked into her eyes and saw a kind of peace with our deaths. It was as if she always knew that we would be killed tragically, but that she was just happy that we would die together, and in that moment I knew that this would be the last time that this exact scenario would play out. What scared me was that I was okay with that.

Have you ever felt like that? Knowing that you failed someone so completely and yet feeling okay with that sense of complete and utter failure because they're happy with the situation? To say it's confusing is an understatement as it's taken me centuries to become familiar with it and to accept that some things can end in failure if the person most affected is okay with the result.

Of course in the next moment, because I was distracted, an arrow pierced my throat and caused me to gurgle blood to my death, but that's slightly beside the point. What the point is, is that as I saw Annabeth's head go flying, rather cleanly but that's the warrior in me appreciating good technique, I didn't feel any need to attempt to save her from her death. All that happened is that I merely appreciated the fact that we got to spend what little time we had together and that we went down fighting together.

However, apparently, this is what Chaos was waiting for. After I died, everything just sort of faded to black, contrary to what had happened every time before, where I had just woken up when I wanted to (the day of Annabeth's death). I was just sort of standing in a void, with nothing to allow me to gain my bearings other than the feeling of gravity, and some sort of ground to stand on. Looking around, all I could see was blackness as not even the twinkling of stars was there to pierce the blackness that I had previously associated with Nyx on the few occasions that she handed me quests (yes, I realize I had previously fought with her, but I also did that with many gods and goddesses during the Second Titan War, and some of them sided with me during the Second Giant War, so by that point I had given up keeping godly preferences straight).

This time I was approached by Chaos in person, so to speak. She, and this time it was a she that approached me, casually walked up to me as if this was but a normal occurrence for her. I will admit that she was gorgeous, more stunning than even Aphrodite and she was the goddess/ titaness/ primordial of love. She had the most striking blue eyes, almost like the sky before a storm, dirty blonde hair that fell just above her shoulders, and a figure that would cause jealousy in any female, mortal or not, that saw it. In short, she looked just like Annabeth would have in a few years.

"Is there any particular reason you chose to actually talk to me this time, instead of beaming the information into my head like last time?" I questioned. Sure, all reason had since left my life, but such is the case when your dad's an Olympian, and more importantly I was curious.

"Well Percy, this version of you gets this version of me and this version of this conversation, but you already knew that, after I as you so eloquently put it, 'beamed the information' into your head" she said, her voice almost melodic, and reminding me of the music of nature and all of it's randomness. "I'm here to help explain things to you and to help you with your transition from an ordinary being stuck inside my multi-verse, to a kind of explorer of all of my many branches."

"Alright" I hesitantly responded, "could you start with explaining the multi-verse bit in a bit more detail, and more importantly the whole 'my branches' bit? 'Cause I get the whole deal with you reviving me in different universes, but what is a multi-verse, how is that different from a universe and again, what the hell do you mean 'my branches'?!"

"Well my dear son of Poseidon, to answer your questions, let me start from the beginning. I am Chaos-" she started.

"Yes, I know that bit." I interrupted.

"It's bad manners to interrupt when someone is doing something that you want dearie," she said, and I could feel the energy charged in what passed for air in this void as her anger literally changed the universe, "now where was I? Ah yes. I am Chaos, and I am what some call a multi-verse entity, or a universal center by other more experienced beings. What I am is the beginning of every single universe where things such as Greek gods, Roman gods or any of those other, poly-deist gods exist. Not the idea of them per se, as many universes have myths about them due to some of my universes brushing up against theirs enough to convey the idea of multiple gods, but not enough to merge and split together and have them actually exist in a separate universe that stems from me and another center. Yes dear, there are more than one universal center, but stay hushed for now.

"Now, think of me as a tree. I grow with one universe taking center stage like the very, very core of a tree, with other universes expanding off of that one universe, each very similar yet slightly different like the rings of a tree. These other universes are caused by people making different choices than the ones made in the core universe, and most of the time, the choices that these people make only cause small changes to occur in their universe. Things like instead of you liking blue food, you like purple food, or the car that some person chooses is another and that has very little impact on the direction a universe takes. Other choices are a bit more important.

"Choices that can change the course of a major war for example, such as the Trojan War. There's one universe where the Trojans decided to light the horse on fire as a sort of, how do you say it, screw you to the Greeks, causing the Greeks to attack earlier than anticipated. Another good example is your choice to use Annabeth as your anchor in the river Styx, how if you'd chosen a weaker anchor then you wouldn't have survived and the entire Second Titan War would have failed as the prophecy couldn't be fulfilled.

"When choices such as these are made, the universes they create are no longer so much rings on a tree, but branches from it, and they can be vastly different from the core universe, each splintering and growing by itself. You came from one such universe, where not only did Annabeth get killed in a full on assault, but you both chose to live in New York, and you decided to end your life and commit suicide rather than bear the pain of loss and sorrow that accompanies a loved one dying. Now Perseus Jackson, what are your other questions?"

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A/N: If you have any major questions, please either put them in a review or PM me and I'll try to answer them in the next chapter. A big thank you goes out to the three people who reviewed this and told me to keep going, as I don't think I would've kept going and have forgotten about it. I'd also like to thank you all for your patience as so many different things happened to delay this chapter getting posted from my original idea failing miserably, to exams hitting like a sack of hammers (something I may do to Percy literally now that I think of it), to my muse always singing when I couldn't write and being a bitch whenever I pulled this up at home. As I said before, please review as no matter how long it's been I will keep coming back to this as long as there's interest, and as long as more ideas keep coming for this.


	4. Chapter 4

A split second later and I was waking up again. Stretching and looking around I felt different aches and pains for the first time in... Shit, it was probably years wasn't it? Gods it felt nice to wake up with entirely different knots and bruises, scars and sore for what was my first new day in effectively decades of fighting.

Hey, my fatal flaw is loyalty, okay?

The problem started when I noticed which aches and pains it was that I was feeling. Why it was they felt so familiar too. It was the day that I had decided to kill myself all those years ago.

Why did Chaos dump me back here? Had she abandoned me? Had it even happened at all? Was it all a dream? Pocket universe for my mind maybe? Something more sinister? After being the punching bag for the gods – and after learning second hand through Annabeth, who absolutely adored learning all she could get her hands on – I know that there's some pretty weird shit that's possible in the universe.

These thoughts and more crossed my mind all at once as my old companion of heart wrenching sadness settled on my shoulders again. It wasn't until the end of my day, attempting to end it as I tried to all those years ago that I realized that it wasn't all in my head in one way or another.

Unfortunately I learned it after I swan dived off of Olympus and made a Percy pizza on the ground, experiencing the excruciating pain just long enough to jolt me out of sleep again to relive that same day. Everything I had been through was real. Chaos was still keeping my life in motion for her own purposes and I was given a chance to do... Something.

What had happened? I scrunched up my eyes and tried to think.

Chaos had said that she was going to answer my question, so what was I about to ask?

My eyes popped open with a sudden realization. The question that had plagued me after I was a few months into my campaign to save Annabeth from certain death, all the way through till my final acceptance. _Who could have possibly orchestrated such a perfect attack?_

Some obvious answers flew through my mind and I was moving without thinking to exact vengeance, but a voice that sounded distinctly like Annabeth scolded me for jumping to conclusions.

"So, since I have all the time in the world," I started out loud "let's try to puzzle this out."

I began to pace my new/old tiny studio apartment. Even as an adult, adhd still helped distract the hell out of me, and physical distractions that I could control helped clear my head.

"First things first, I need to make a list of all the people that might have a grudge against me for whatever reason."

"And beings, and creatures and whatnot." I added as an after thought.

"That's easy enough I suppose. I've not exactly been a stellar example of Mr. Congeniality. My problem then becomes this. Who could have had the resources to mount such an attack against me? That narrows the list down considerably."

I frowned. My list was shortened down to a very select few when I took that into consideration.

"So," I continued, "if my list is limited by grudges and resources... It would also have to be limited by time, wouldn't it?"

"On earth, absolutely. Unless whoever did this wasn't on earth at the time of planning." My frown deepened even more at this to become more of a grimace, if I'm being perfectly honest.

"Tarturus doesn't make sense because time passes faster there, space only has so much slower time there as compared to here and it would take a pocket dimension for anywhere else than that, and that would take a bloody primordial to achieve so that's out of the question. So it has to have been someone who's had a grudge against me for a long time."

"Could be Kronos, I suppose if we're talking about time distortions, but that shouldn't really be a possibility due to him being so scattered throughout earth, tarturus and the rest of the universe that it will take billions of years for him to regain so much as a conscious thought, never mind the ability to manipulate time."

"So, someone who's had a grudge against me for a long time and has the resources to free enormous amounts of monsters from tarturus at the same time. Not only that, but they have to be able to convince said monsters that I'm not only a worthy target, but that I'm worth the risk of being sent back, so soon after being freed."

At this point, my pace was such that I was going to wear through my cheap laminate floor down to the neighbours apartment before I made a breakthrough. Taking a sixty second or so break to grab my things I made my way down to the sidewalk to keep thinking my way through this scheme.

"My enemy is someone who has a grudge against me," I ticked off my fingers "someone who's powerful, influential and has been planning this for a long, long time. Not to mention persuasive like I already said."

Miracles don't happen. Not in my extended experience. Chance, chaos, magic, influence, even a particular universe being fated to act in a certain way happen, but not miracles. Yet it's been so many years, learning about Chaos and what it is that it wants, or seems to want at least, and I've still not been able to explain this next bit, not with all of my countless years, as anything less than miraculous.

"Sorry, don't mean to intrude," came a very unfamiliar voice. A British lady, just walking past me on the street who happened to overhear some of what I was saying and for whatever reason decided that I was in a bit of trouble and needed help. Someone who was willing to listen and believe just about anything that I had to say for the duration of a conversation, because I happened to look lost, confused and in need of not only an ally, but a friend for a short while. Never again have I found her, not in a single run down bar across the multiverse, or a single NYC street anywhere, but I will always remember her for this one comment. Something so small, but so utterly caring and helpful.

"I was about to pass you when I happened to over hear some of your thinking out loud. Have you pissed off a CEO of a company or something?" I barely glanced at her. Average height, pretty in a cute round faced sort of way, brunette, in a black wool long coat.

"No, I don't really run in those circles" I scoffed, turning away from her before stopping dead in my tracks.

"No, but I've been a threat to a powerful person for a very long time now. I've got to go!" I exclaimed, turning and running back to my apartment.

"Thank you!" I shouted into the crowded New York City streets, in all probability lost in the hustle and bustle of the big apple.

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It was Zeus. Of course it was. How could it not be. Powerful, influential, silver-tongued enough to seduce women across the ages so was it that much of a stretch to consider him being more so than he let on? Always paranoid about those who were not under his power, always trying to tie mortals to divinity to bind them to the Ancient Laws when they started becoming too powerful. Hell, he could have used this, or similar, plans since his very ascension to the throne! Never mind tailor made for me, this could have just been a cookie cutter plan, so to speak.

Only if it was, he probably would have wanted me to be there as well... But I wasn't because of my father! Poseidon either intentionally, (or perhaps subconsciously as regular people do with normal minds, never mind a godly mind), had me come help him and thus saved me from the attack! Could have been coincidence, but to this day I like to think that dear old dad was looking out for me on some level in universe zero as I call it.

Needless to say, I marched right up to Olympus, barged into the throne room and accused Zeus in front of whichever gods were there. Aphrodite was for sure as she squeaked with surprise, but I don't remember the rest because I was then vaporized on the spot for my efforts, and the potential insult if I was wrong I suppose. I hadn't even gotten partway through my accusation before I was killed. Ah, the ignorance of youth.

Being vaporized was more painless than hitting concrete at terminal velocity at least, even if it did hurt like a son of a bitch for the time that I did feel it. Was quick though, I'll give it that.

Next time I accused him, I did it during the Winter Solstice council meeting. Got vaporized then too, in spite of my dramatic entrance and everything. I had even arranged for all of the lesser gods and spirits, etc, to be watching it all on Hephaestus TV. Again, quicker than blinking but it still hurt like the devil for while it lasted.

For the next several years I tried catching him off guard and accusing him, in public and private, with differing audiences to the drama before I decided on a different tactic. Finally I took a page from my better half's book, and started to make a plan. Think it all out, cover all the angles, suss out his weaknesses, learn all I could about him and only after knowing him better than he did himself, take him down. It took several lifetimes to achieve this. Growing old and dying multiple times, killing myself after a certain point after the first couple times because having your body fail you before dying is a miserable experience.

My patience paid off though. It resulted in monumental discoveries. Discoveries about how he had managed to stay on top of the heap for so long. About his powers, where they came from, if and how they increased or decreased. About immortality in general, and about the nature of divinity. Knowledge that would burn an ordinary mind. Not mine though, for I was "blessed" by Chaos, and given strength far greater than the physical. My memory was but a symptom of a far greater blessing of my mind, which all in all allowed me to traverse the multiverse without going insane. Learn I did, until I had such knowledge and more, knowledge that would allow me to shake the very roots of human civilization.

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A/N: I haven't forgotten about this story, but my muse has been spouting off about very different things up until recently. That and I didn't like where I'd previously planned for this story to go so I had to scrap it all and start from scratch. Still, excuses don't really help anyone.

Either way, I do live off of the few reviews and loyal readers I've somehow managed to accrue, and do deeply appreciate. I already have an idea of where I want this to go next chapter, and I think it's safe to say that it will be out far sooner than this one took.


	5. Chapter 5

**Warning! Extreme, Explicit and Graphic descriptions of violence and semi-torture below! Read on at your own peril!**

 **P.S. This is where the story earns its M rating.**

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Blood dripped down Riptide's length as I circled him.

"The high and mighty Lord Zeus, so strong that his anger comes down from the heavens themselves. Smiting any mortal unfortunate enough to invoke his wrath. Or even simply be unlucky enough to be in his way while he's letting off steam."

My mouth formed into a bloodthirsty smirk. Zeus was beaten and we both knew it. Cut, covered in ichor and his godly form losing it's sheen, it was a testament to his power that he could even still be standing right now after what I had put him through. Only my high-tech helmet, fused with the best that magic and technology could carry, allowed me to look at him in his true form. To be perfectly honest, it had started out as a pet project of mine that had slowly evolved and taken shape into it's final form. Not unlike that of Boba Fett's, it covered my head completely and allowed me to look straight at any deity short of Chaos itself in their true form without so much as a headache. A true form that would be falling apart any moment now.

"Imagine if any of your siblings, or any of your many children could see you now? Beaten by a mere mortal because you were too confident. Hubris _milord._ " I finished with a dramatic bow, knowing what would happen next.

A "blink and you'll miss it" moment. Zeus took advantage of my dramatics and burst towards me at inhuman speeds with fists charged with raw power. Power that would be enough to tear apart any armour that even a god could create. Not healthy or safe by any means and if kept up too long would inevitably tear him apart; but all he needed to do was land one shot and he'd be able to take me down with him.

Of course I knew he would do this. Zeus was nothing if not predictable. Blurring with speed that was just at the brink of what a mortal could see he swung at where my head was, hoping to destroy the piece of gear that had allowed me to fight for so long.

Key word being **was**.

I had turned my bow into a sideways roll at the peak, twisting and slicing with my sword, hamstringing the enraged and weakening god.

Zeus collapsed like a puppet without strings as he hit the ground, skipping across the dirt plains of Africa that he had chosen as his field of choice. Activating my boots, I launched myself after him, using another fun piece of tech I had developed. Superman was always a favourite of mine, despite being more akin to Aquaman myself. Thus when the opportunity arose to create armour that would allow me to keep up with a furious god, how could I resist? A little bit of magic to absorb a fraction of kinetic energy from every footfall, creating the field of technomancy (magic and technology linked together) to create a metaphysical battery that I could use, a bit of the mind arts to psychically link it to my mind for activation and a little bit of technomancy to do the same to my head's up display to keep watch on it's status, not to mention more than a bit of praying to Chaos for it to work like I hoped it would, and voila! Armour that would make Hephaestus himself drool in awe and envy.

Ending with the result that I shot across the dark continent faster than a speeding bullet, barrelling after the asshole that had murdered my girlfriend. Catching up with him I gave him a swift kick on arrival, both to slow myself down and to hurt him even more. Zeus' head snapped back so fast that even being godly as he was his neck snapped like a twig. Not quite paralyzing him, but making it so that he had to dedicate energy that could've been used to fight into healing his fight-stopping injury.

I let him. This fight was a long time coming and I wanted it to last.

"You know, all of this could've been avoided if you had just acknowledged guilt in her death." I gloated, watching as his neck glowed with divine power, healing itself.

"All you had to do was to pay the weregild that we were due. Of course, you would've had to come clean with your involvement in her death and sacrificed your seat as king of Olympus for bringing dishonour on the name of the Council, but you would've survived." Musing, I pressed the point of Riptide into his stomach.

"Now however because you not only accepted trial by combat but a challenge for your domains, I get to make your death slow and _incredibly,_ painful."

Pushing Riptide down less than half an inch the celestial bronze blade entered him, causing him to scream out in pain.

"When's the last time you gutted a fish? Must have been a while, right? You know, considering dear old dad is king of the oceans it must have been ages ago? Let me re-teach you how it's done. First-" I said, pushing deeper into his stomach "you cut into the hole that's the fish's asshole. That's not convenient for gutting you so I'm going to have to make do with just making a hole of my own."

Zeus' screams grew louder at each new movement, his entire being focused on trying to heal himself and failing, making his thrashing not only merely annoying but impotent.

"After you get your knife in, what you do is you drag it up the fish's belly-" I continued, demonstrating the technique on his helpless body, "until you get to the neck of the fish at which point you stop." I finished, removing my sword from his torso, golden ichor dripping off of the blade with a sickening glow.

I watched as his body attempted to repair the damage that I had done, glowing as brightly as it had the energy to, light pouring from the wound that had split his belly and allowed a look into his internal organs. Just like you see in the medical teaching videos, with intestines, and a liver, and all other sorts of organs inside.

"What happens next is remarkably simple. You simply cut the head off, and rip out the rest of the fish guts and you're done." Speaking slowly and clearly I finished, looking deep into his eyes for understanding of the words I was saying.

Pain was all I could see for a few seconds before recognition kicked in and a look of horror fell upon his face.

"Don't worry though. For you, the 'king of the gods', I think that we can reverse the order." I said, kneeling down to reach deep into his torso to grab hold of a long stand of intestine. Pulling more and more of it out, I ignored the continuing screams of agony as I felt the cold-burning pit of rage flare up again. A little ball that when I first learned of her death had ignited like a wildfire, burning down all of my friendships with outbursts of pain, and rage, and finally isolation and depression. A fire that had started me down this path long ago when I decided that I simply couldn't live in a world without her in it, and resulted in an offer that had lead me to this exact moment.

I was suddenly jerked back to reality as I felt a hand grip my arm, covered in a bracer as it was. There was still a bit of strength left in the extremity as I looked back to the source of my pain, holding on to the last bit of life that he had left. A ghostly whisper left his lips as he spoke his last words, laced with pain and suffering.

"I only did it-" a body-wracking cough interrupted him, leaving bloody spittle on his lips "to weaken you. You were too powerful and would have tried to take my throne." he finished, hacking even more.

I leaned down towards his ear and spoke gently.

"I would've left you alone if you and the rest of the gods hadn't continued to involve me in your affairs. This is all a mess of your own making."

With that final piece of knowledge imparted, and a final piece of mental torture sure to agonize him in his last moments, I crushed his skull with my gauntlet. In doing so I finished the challenge I had issued only days before, a challenge that had lasted the last twenty four hours and had finished with the slow and painful death of the god who I believed was responsible for the suffering and pain that I through. A challenge that ended with my body glowing as I took dominion over Zeus' domains and turned his body into a pale decrepit skeleton, aging millennia in a matter of seconds.

Don't get me wrong I didn't kill an innocent person, but Zeus wasn't responsible for my suffering. As I felt a mild sense of completion come over me, the ball of pain that I had carried around for centuries still felt tight in my gut and I couldn't help but feel as though exacting my revenge in painful reality was nowhere near enough to ease my spirit.

* * *

A/N: Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement! I couldn't decide on how I wanted to do this chapter and after scrapping several pages worth at least five or six times, changing direction each time I finally ended up with this. As it is I'm going to leave it up to you kind readers to let me know if you want this to continue, and if so which direction you'd like it to go. I can foresee this going any number of ways with the next chapter, both staying in this universe and watching Percy adapt to his new godly powers and responsibilities, as well as bouncing into a new and exciting AU that may or may not contain any number of central players that are in canon.

As always, thank you for reading!


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